THE MILITARY HERO IN THE PERCEPTION OF THE POETS OF «THE PRAGUE GROUP OF UKRAINIAN NATIONALIST WRITERS»

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the study of the image of a military hero in the poetic works of the artists of «The Prague Group of Ukrainian Nationalist Writers», based on the poetic works from «Stylet and stylus. Ukrainian Military Poetry» anthology. The aim of the article is the characterization of the reasons for the existence of the image of a military hero and the classification of its main features. According to the aim, the discussions of Ukrainian literary scholars (D. Dontsov, M. Ilnytsky, V. Prosalova and others) around the phenomenon of the unity of «The Prague Group» are studied. It is proved that, despite the fact that some scholars reject the existence of this phenomenon, we are able to qualify the addressing to the image of a military hero as an intersection point for the representatives of this group. In the mentioned poetic works the range of the main problems that becomes apparent through the artistic mediation of this image, is emphasised and analysed. For the first time an attempt is made to create the typology of the features of the image of a military hero in the poetic works of «The Prague Group», based on the concept of Yu. Shevelyov about the new type of a human that appears in the after-war literature. The manifestation of the character through the concept of «passive suffering» by W. B. Yeats, that was prominent in the literary criticism of the poetry of the inter-war period, is analysed. It is proved that the most frequent feature of the image of a military character is the feature of the warrior, through which the problem of the glorification of the battle and the apology of war is translated. It can be combined with the features of the aristocrat and the statesman, where the aristocracy is close to the feature of knighthood and related to the problems of the national remembrance and the historical experience. The analysis of the poetic works states that the image of a military hero grows naturally from the personal experience of «The Prague Group» representatives. By means of it, the life-affirming pathos of the war, as well as the acceptance of suffering and death are manifested. So this embodiment of the image goes against the concept of the «passive suffering» by W. B. Yeats, on which the anti-war European poetry of the interwar period appears.